


The Memory Of A Corpse

by TheGrinch



Category: The Mortal Instruments - All Media Types, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst, F/M, Future Fic, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 16:04:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10166690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGrinch/pseuds/TheGrinch
Summary: A young woman is left alone in a warlock's apartment and goes exploring.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys,
> 
> This is my first TMI story, so hopefully it's okay. The start is crappy I think personally, but to be fair, it was just a filler for the second half. Oh well. 
> 
> Please R&R!!
> 
> I own nothing and this is unbetaed. I'm awful at proofreading so please tell me of any mistakes.

“It can’t wait? Fine. I’m coming. But this is the last time I’m sorting out your mess Lily.” With that he cuts the woman off, sighing again as he turns to the now awake figure in the bed next to him. “I have to leave for a while darling, make yourself comfortable if you wish. Or go. I don’t care.”

Shaking his hair he climbs out of the bed, pulling on a pair of tight red pants and a black top before disappearing through a portal, leaving the young woman completely alone in the vast apartment. 

“Okay… that’s fetch.” She mutters tugging the purple sheets around her body and pushing a black strand from her face as she exited the bed.

While she has no doubt that the warlock was implying she leave, she wanted a drink and something to eat, so Mr High and Mighty would just have to make do. Although she’d been in the apartment for half a day the only rooms she had seen were the very bright bedroom and cluttered bathroom, and while it might be rude, it was her first time alone in a Downworlder’s home and it wasn’t like she was going to leave without having sated her curiosity first. 

The hallway walls were littered with paintings. Some were much better than others, in fact some of them looked like the work of a child, but why they would be up she had no idea. It wasn't like warlocks could have children, well, they could adopt obviously but she hadn't seen anything to suggest a child lived here. All of the paintings were either landscapes or abstract pieces, no portraits. Despite the number of them, she couldn’t see anything personal about the paintings herself. 

The first door she opened was another bedroom. Compared to her companion’s bedroom this one was much more muted in it’s appearance. The walls were cream, except for one which was a forest green and the curtains were a chocolate brown, with a matching rug. It was sparsely furnished, containing only a bed, wardrobe and desk. However, the light layer of dust on the furniture indicated that no one had been using it in some time. Humming to herself, she pulled the oak door closed again. 

The door on the opposite side of the hallway led to another bedroom. Unlike the other one there was no dust and given that there was an opened jewellery box and book on the bed side table, suggested someone had been there recently. Other than that though, there were no holophotos or anything like the rest of the apartment so far. Nothing personal in any way. 

She found the open plan kitchen-dining room behind the third door. While eating some toast and drinking her coffee, the Shadowhunter pondered as to why there was nothing personal around the apartment. The only other warlock she’d ever had a real conversation with said that some immortals prefer to live like that, it made it easier to move around when you don’t have to try so many things with you. The man had said nothing when she said that sounded like a lonely existence, only cupping a gold pendant briefly before changing the conversation. 

It took her a minute to realise that she didn't even know her companion’s name. Lord her mother would not be impressed she giggled to herself, although Colin would have a right laugh at that, he was the lax one of the parabatai pair after all. Well, supposedly. There was no need to mention the vampire or fairy she met some weeks earlier. Or that she had both of them together. No reason to mention it at all. Giggling to herself again she cleaned up the plate and mug, deciding that she wanted to look around again before she left. 

The living room was very bright, yet decorated in an old-fashioned way that she didn't expect to be something her companion would go for. By the window was an ugly sculpture of some description; it looked like… well, something, but Lord knows what. It was home-like, and it had the first holophoto she had yet seen; her companion with another two warlocks, one was a blue man with black horns and the other a woman with owl eyes. Warlock books were strewn across the room and there were some antique looking things she had never seen before which held her interest for a while before she grew bored. 

There was a study, littered with various documents in languages she couldn’t read and again like many of the rooms, lacked anything personal and she left almost quickly as she’d entered.

There was only one more room.

The door wouldn't budge at first, like it was locked. Scratch that. It was locked. Yeah well, she wasn't the Institution pick-pocket for no reason. 

When the door opened she was momentarily puzzled by the lack of sophistication used. Considering the power a warlock held, she would have expected her skills to be redundant; but strangely the door was just locked on a mundane level. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t that. 

The room itself was smaller than the two guest rooms, but still fairly sized, and lit by two large candles on an old, but beautiful wooden table. Shelves ran around the room, except for the wall opposite the door, lined with leather bound books and various wooden boxes. 

Other than the table, the only other piece of furniture was an armchair on the left side of the table on an angle and a large painting of the headshot of a young man with blue eyes and black hair dressed in black with a bright smile on his face on the right side. In its corner is a date scribbled delicately - 23/04/2014. The position of the painting was rather odd in her opinion, it would have been better served mounted on the wall behind the table, instead it stood on the floor and was propped up by the shelves. 

Across the room were pictures in various sizes and frames, and she was surprised to see they were photographs considering holophotos had been in use for the better part of two centuries. The only photographs found now were very old or in books; yet, these looked perfect, even the ones next to the candles. They hadn't faded at all. However, despite all the pictures on the shelves and walls, it was the ones on the table that captured her attention the most. Between the candles were three large photos, all in frames with the same elegant and intrinsic design, but the middle photo was portrait and the frame gold, while the other two photos were landscape and in silver frames. Moving towards the table she picked up the centre picture, examining it closer. 

Happy. That the way she could only describe it. Two people captured forever in a moment of complete bliss. One was her companion and the other, the young man from the painting. It took her a minute to realise that the paler man was a Shadowhunter, having not noticed originally but evident by the rune poking out from from his suit and then blinked in surprise when it hit her again. They were wearing wedding suits. The Shadowhunter was in the traditional black with gold accents, whereas her companion was the reverse; although both suited what they wore perfectly. 

The other photos either side were obviously taken on the same day. However in one the two men were holding a child each on their hips in a mirror manner. The Shadowhunter was holding a blue boy; while her fling, a seemingly human boy. Both boys were wearing black suits with gold buttons, and while the warlock child had a gold bow, the other had a tie instead, though the colour was the same. A family photo? Must be.

Meanwhile the other picture held the couple, but surrounded by three other couples. She recognised Tessa Gray, and by process of elimination that must of been her husband Jem when he was alive given that Tessa had a ring on and hadn’t been married since Jem. She vaguely recognised the red-headed woman in green and blonde man from a book somewhere; although where she couldn’t think of exactly. She wasn't the best for paying attention in her history sessions. Why live in the past? The final couple she thinks she’s seen before, but can’t really remember if she’s correct or not. Her mother could tell her who they are. Probably. Everyone is smiling in the picture, all of them looking directly into the camera in a very informal manner with their arms woven around each other, standing at various angles. 

Replacing the pictures, she lightly brushed her fingers over the other pictures and books across the room. Some of the books were just that, books, ranging from texts on the Shadow World to some mundane stories she’d heard of herself. However, upon closer inspection some of them were albums filled with hundreds of other pictures. The first album was filled with pictures of the warlock with his husband outside various famous mundane places, though the younger look on the Shadowhunter’s face, these were all taken some years earlier than the wedding pictures. Other albums contained pictures of other people, such as the children and adults in the wedding pictures, as well as other people she didn't recognise. Sometimes the warlock and his husband were in them, sometimes they weren’t. However she noticed that the closer the album was to the door, the older the blue-eyed man got. Well, other than some people who were obviously warlocks, and some who were presumably vampires, they all got older. 

A burgundy album she was now flicking through was filled with the couple and their children and grandchildren; but the majority of the photos were of the warlock and his husband outside the same buildings as the first album she’d seen. Some of the scenery had changed, the biggest change though was the couple. The warlock still looked the same for the most part - his hair and clothing was different, and he looked a little older than he did now, suggesting he had used some sort of temporary ageing potion - but the same could not be said for the Shadowhunter. The black hair was now white and while the eyes were no less blue, lines now surrounded them and his skin had wrinkled everywhere else too. Although he didn’t stand as tall though, and there was a cane in his clutch, the Shadowhunter maintained his strong pose and stature. 

Swallowing she closed the album, carefully returning it to the shelf and biting her lip in a sadness for the warlock once she realised that was the last album by the door. 

“Now you only care that you crossed a boundary?” She jolted at the voice and almost let go of the sheet around her body. 

The warlock was standing impassively on the other side of the door, clutching her clothing. Mentally she berated herself for not having heard him sooner.

“How, how-”

“How long was I standing here?” When she nods he steps closer, stopping a foot or so from her. “Long enough. The magic on the door tells me when someone else opens it. Tell you like to open the boxes? Hm?”

As he says it he’s moving past her, picking up one of the boxes off a shelf and holding it to her, repeating the motion when shakes her head. 

“I-I’m s-sorry.” 

“What about the drawers, well? Want to see what’s in the table?” 

She shakes her head but he opens the drawer and gestures for her to come forward. Nervously she moves across the wooden floor, stopping next to him and swallowing as she stares at the gold and black suits. 

“Happy?”

“I’m sorry, please stop.” The warlock does as she asks, halting his opening of the middle drawer and instead shuts it. 

“You Shadowhunters.” He grounds out, tossing her clothes at her and she moves to put them on, pausing at his tone.

“You married one.” That stops him. For a minute he stares a her silently like he can’t decide what to do. 

What he does do is to sink into the armchair and stare past her to the painting. She finally realises why it’s angled that way. It makes it easier for him to gaze at it when sitting in the chair. 

“Please leave.” He says finally once she’s dressed. 

Nodding she scuttles towards the door, then stops at the doorway. “We don’t know each other’s names.”

A cold snort escapes the warlock’s mouth and his gaze turns from the painting to her. “You’ll be dead in a hundred years and you’re of no significance to me. I only picked you out of all the others at that party because I like blue eyes. So please, tell me, why should I care what your name is?”

With that he looks away again and she purses her lips. She goes to move but stops again.

“The date on that painting,” Her tone isn’t harsh, it’s gentle but firm, yet the warlock twitches, like he’s resisting turning his head. “That date was over two hundred and eighty years ago. You’ve spent nearly three hundred years clutching onto the memory of a corpse, let go. It’ll only make eternity worse. Oh, and I know you don’t care, but my name? My name’s Felicia Lovelace.”

At the mention of ‘corpse’ he does turn, staring at her impassively again and says nothing as she turns away from him. 

She swears she hears the word ‘Magnus’ as she exits the apartment, but she doesn't know if he means himself or the Shadowhunter in the painting.

**Author's Note:**

> P.S Sorry for the horrible narrative style in which I don't really use anyone's names, I know it can make it hard to read so well done for lasting until the end :) 
> 
> P.S.S Bonus points to anyone who saw the relevance of her name, let me know what you think it is if you have any clue. Want a tip? Go here and to the 'Shadowhunter Academy' section. http://shadowhunters.wikia.com/wiki/Simon_Lewis
> 
> P.S.S.S. I know that after the war the group were famous and you'd think everyone would know who they are, even generations on. But were going with the idea that other stuff happened and while the war was remembered, some of the people involved were lost to time so to speak, kind of like when we are taught history now. Annoying I know, I'm sorry.


End file.
